Hammond’s guitar pushes upstart Strokes

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 | 10:05 a.m.

After debuting with an album recently voted No. 57 all-time by Rolling Stone magazine readers, what can a band possibly do for a follow-up?

The Strokes are about to find out.

One year after the much-hyped New York City rock band released "Is This It?" to widespread popular and critical acclaim, the group's five members are preparing to reconvene in the studio.

Will the results match the anticipation, and propel The Strokes to even greater worldwide popularity?

Or will the pressure to produce a classic ultimately prove too much, sending the band down a path traveled by the likes of Boston, the Violent Femmes and Hootie & the Blowfish groups that spent their careers trying to match the success of their major-label debuts?

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., for one, doesn't sound worried.

"There's always pressure. The first one was pressure, the second and third ones will be pressure. But it's actually kind of nice," Hammond said in a telephone interview from the band's bus en route to a recent show in Portland, Ore.

"We didn't know the first one was going to do what it did right off, but it's given us a really good fan base. And I think they'll be excited to hear what we do next."

Hammond and the other four Strokes -- vocalist Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti -- will make their second Las Vegas appearance of the year Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. Indie rockers Adam Green and Ben Kweller open the show.

For fans eager to hear new Strokes music, the concert will feature five new Casablancas compositions, tracks likely to appear on the band's next album.

"After this, we're not touring until the next record comes out," Hammond said. "We'll finish writing the record in December and January and then go record in the beginning of next year."

The Strokes' live set will also feature most, if not all, of the 11 songs from "Is This It?" That album, along with recent releases by buzz bands The White Stripes and The Vines, has been hailed by many critics as the start of a sort of retro-garage movement in rock.

But Hammond isn't buying it.

"It's like they think we're all family, the three musketeers of rock and roll or something," he said. "I wish the best of luck to all of them, but I don't like being lumped together like that. I think if we just keep progressing as songwriters we'll pass all that stuff."

One number The Strokes typically perform live cannot be found on their first CD, nor is it likely to show up on future albums. At the request of RCA executives, the band removed "NYC Cops" from the U.S. release of "Is This It?" due to concerns it might be poorly received post-Sept. 11.

The objectionable lyric: "I said every night she can't stop sayin', New York City Cops, New York City Cops, New York City Cops, They ain't too smart."

"They asked us and we thought it wasn't worth it to keep it on there," Hammond said. "But the song really isn't saying anything bad about anyone. It's just about a girl telling a story, and she says, 'They ain't too smart.' "

Ultimately, the extra attention has only served to turn "NYC Cops" -- which can only be heard as the B-side to one of the band's singles or on a bonus DVD being sold with limited-edition versions of "Is This It?" -- into one of the band's most popular songs.

"By taking it off the album, it almost made it bigger, you know, almost like a cult thing," Hammond said. "People love it, and it sounds great live."

For The Strokes, it has all added up to the type of attention rarely heaped on an indie-rock outfit that relies on angular riffs and 3-minute pop songs. The band regularly sells out its gigs and even opened two recent shows for the Rolling Stones.

"That was surreal. We got out there and it was like, 'The Stones want to meet you at 7:15 p.m.,' " Hammond said. "Just seeing them in person and being right there next to them, just us and them ... Wow."

As for the recent Rolling Stone magazine poll, in which The Strokes' CD was ranked higher than many of rock's most revered classics -- including "The Velvet Underground & Nico," The Who's "Tommy" and Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" -- Hammond says he doesn't dwell on the unusual reception his band's debut has received.

"Those kind of things are so intense, you don't even feel the full effect," Hammond said. "It's just like, 'Wow, I don't get it.' So you can't really think on it too long."